Upon returning home in Spring of 1972 he was introduced to an IBMchemist named Marcel Vogel.[3] After spending several hours of conversation Marcel said, "You are the person who will carry on my research into plants sensitivity and human consciousness." Marcel gave Fontes all the equipment he needed to begin the work.

Fontes worked with Remote Viewers Ingo Swann, Hella Hammid[13] and Pat Price. The product of this work culminated in a final report "Organic Biofield Sensor" by H. E. Puthoff and R. Fontes;.[14][15] dated November 1975.

"The purpose of the investigation reported here was to assess the feasibility of the use of a special class of device (organic sensor) for real-time contactless measurement of psychological stress or other psychological or physiological state in a human subject being monitored. To this end special detectors were developed so that the electrical activity and micromovements of plants (Philodendron oxycardium, Mimosa pudica) and algae (Nitella) could be monitored. The activity of these sensors while in close proximity to a human subject viewing slides of varying emotional content was then examined. The sensors were located inside Faraday cage electrical shielding to eliminate trivial electrical artifacts. To provide an objective indicator of emotional response during viewing, the subject's GSR (galvanic skin response) was recorded to provide a signal to cross-correlate with the organic sensor output."

"Pilot experiments with the algae Nitella indicated that they were nonresponsive to the activity of human subjects in close proximity, and therefore experimentation with Nitella was terminated early in the program. With regard to plant sensors, however, experimental findings with twelve subjects indicated that the electrical activity of plants in close proximity to a human subject viewing slides of putative emotional content, although not in one-to-one correspondence with subject GSR, nevertheless did show in some cases (20%) statistically significant evidence of correlation with subject GSR.* Furthermore, such electrical activity is found not to be an artifact of plant micromotion, the latter being uncorrelated with either subject GSR or plant potential, nor is it a system artifact due to slide tray activity signals in the GSR channel. Thus, although we must reject the hypothesis that subject GSR and plant potential fluctuations of a nearby electrically shielded plant are in general correlated, there is evidence for a degree of correlation beyond that expected by chance."

The founder of the Exploratorium was Physicist Dr. Frank Oppenheimer who believed Science and Art should be experienced together as different views of the same truth; that they should be seen to reinforce each other.

In August 2000 Fontes began to independently focus his full attention to the integration of Science, Art and Spirit and for the last eight years he dedicated himself full-time to the exploration and development of the Play of Light Meditation Experience.

Kirby Seid introduced Marti Spiegelman to Fontes. She hosts Awakening Value on The VoiceAmerica Talk Radio Network who interviewed him in January 2010. Ms. Spiegelman says of Fontes' work:

"Randall’s current work, Art and Science in the Service of Spirit: A Journey into the Play of Light, rises from his botanical research in the ‘60s and the publication of The Secret Life of Plants. Randall’s research focused on the reaction of plants to human emotions, and expanded to research at the Stanford Research Institute on plant and human consciousness.

As the new millennium began, Randall’s work evolved to the integration of science, art, and spirit with his Play of Light Meditative Experience.[20] As he describes it, ‘The Play of Light is about the beauty of light, of sound, and of form. As each of these is deeply resonant with the other, the underlying unity that they share is revealed within their dance, and can be realized through direct experience. Within this experience, the mind becomes still and spontaneous meditation arises."[21]